50% likely turnout in DUSU polls

Hundreds of students of Delhi University (DU) and colleges on Tuesday voted for the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections.

The DUSU election office though has not shared any official figures, it is expected that the voting percentage this time too will remain below 50 per cent mark.

The elections for the four posts of president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary are once again a fierce contest between the Congress’ National Students Union of India (NSUI) and the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

Voting for day colleges commenced at 8:30 am and went on till 1 pm while for evening colleges began at 3 pm and ended at 7:30 pm. The voting was held at 124 booths across university and colleges with 36 observers deployed by DUSU election office.

Further, in a show of strength, locals and strongmen from both National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and their respective parent organizations stepped in favour of their respective candidates. These strong men could be seen lobbying for their respective parties in and around varsity area. Many students avoided these partymen.

The elections to DUSU this time is no different from the previous ones as both Lyngdoh committee guidelines and NGT orders have been openly flouted by student wings. Big hoardings and heaps of pamphlets could be seen scattered all over the major roads and intersections leading to north campus and colleges.

The main contestants for president is NSUI’s Rocky Tuseed belonging to Jat community and ABVP’s Rajat Choudhary of Gujjar community. The fight between the two is perceived as a ‘nose-to-nose’ clash between these two local dominant communities.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court had allowed Rocky to contest the elections after he challenged the DU Chief Election Officer’s (CEO) decision to cancel his nomination on grounds of disciplinary action.

NSUI has also fielded Kunal Sehrawat for the post of vice-president, Meenakshi Meena for secretary and Avinash Yadav for joint secretary. While the ABVP’s Rajat Choudhary is for presidential post, Paarth Rana, Mahamedhaa Nagar and Uma Shankar are for the posts of vice-president, secretary and joint secretary respectively.

The Delhi High Court has given a go-ahead to the Delhi University to declare the results for the post of President on Wednesday. The counting of votes is scheduled for tomorrow. The High Court had earlier asked the University to withhold the declaration of presidential poll results.

Senior Congress leaders along with thousands of Congress workers and volunteers, worked in full force for the NSUI candidates in the elections. Similarly, top brass of BJP were seen stepped in support of ABVP candidates.